KISHI BASHI STRING QUARTET SESSION LIVE AT STUDIO 47, ¼”, 2 TRACK, 15IPS, CCIR TAPE REVIEW

Alan McIntosh reviews the Kishi Bashi String Quartet Session Live at Studio 47, ¼”, 2 track, 15ips, CCIR Tape.

Kishi Bashi is, admittedly, a new artist to me. Having dug a little deeper and discovered how well-known he is across the pond and the projects he’s been involved in, I concede that’s a serious deficiency on me, not on Kishi and one I’ve now remedied and am glad of it! 

Born in Seattle and now residing in Georgia and whose name is Kaoru Dill-Ishibashi, Kishi Bashi is a US-based singer-songwriter, a true multi-instrumentalist, and specifically a violin virtuoso who learned his craft, like so many other greats, at Boston’s Berklee. Whenever I’m in Boston I always visit THE best little Jazz club cum bar cum restaurant – Daryl’s Kitchen on Columbus where often Berklee music school student bands provide a phenomenal jazz backdrop to what is always a very welcoming night! 

Among other projects, Kishi founded the New York indie/new wave band Jupiter One, has his music used by Microsoft for their Windows 8 release, and he’s penned and performed a number of TV and film soundtracks – laterly he performs solo or with supporting players such as in this release – Kishi Bashi String Quartet – Session Live at Studio 47 released on the “boutique” Stella Label (part of the Reel to Reel Haven stable). Recorded in May of this year (2024) and supplied across 2 10.5” 15ips reels of RTM SM900 this live recording sees Kishi joined by the incredible talents of not only Grammy award-winning violinist Sarah Caswell, but also Laura Lutzke (Violin), Elise Frawley on Viola, and the Cellist Emily Hope Price. The album includes a total of 9 tracks, comprising his own work and imaginative covers of two rock classics. 

Shipped from the US and supplied on 2 metal spooled tapes each boxed separately in their own lush burgundy box along with an outer cover box with cover photography of Kishi mid concert, the tapes are supplied tails out to protect them longer term, so my first job is to load and rewind before sitting back, getting comfy and hitting play on my recently calibrated and serviced Studer a807.

I immediately realise I’m listening to something quite unique. This is no reissue of a well-loved jazz standard, classical or 80’s electronica album – this is fresh!  Kishi’s layering of textures and sounds through use of loop boxing, (beat boxing even!), violin, and vocals is something to behold indeed!

The first track Manchester is a love song, as Kishi tells us in the intro, and like all the tracks he both plays and sings on it. It immediately reminds me of a 90’s indie hit, but done on strings rather than electric guitars and keyboards. It’s an up-tempo, incredibly live-sounding recording with nothing done to disguise the open, immediate nature of the mix work – it’s as close to live as I’ve ever heard in a production album. Raw emotion and energy in spades. Caught up in the spinning top of the playing the close intimate audience that loves it too based on their effervescent reaction. 

Continuing that almost 90’s indie feel, For Every Song That Never Sang is a more mid-tempo number but plenty still energy and emotion – at times almost anguished – Kishi’s voice like a 6th instrument. So raw in its production, to some it may seem “unfinished” but not at all! This is a LIVE music recording as it should be. 

With the entrée now consumed, we start to get into the main meat and potatoes as we hear the opening notes of Losing My Religion by REM no less. Kishi’s voice might upset Stipe fans, but the emotion and control he lends to the singing and the quartets playing providing the stage for him to perform from more than competently- It’s quite sublime in parts and there is a lot to like here. 

It might surprise or confuse some to hear that I am the Antichrist To You is, in fact, a Love song. One, Kishi explains, of both love and anger – the playing from everyone and Kishi’s voice adds an airy optimism to what could be a dark track – his voice is well tempered, controlled, and powerful and the recording again shows its rawness (by design)  – this isn’t a carefully coddled studio production but an airy, open mic’d session in its truest form – warts and all. At times, the set up belies the truth of analogue and live recordings – some very close microphones and some parts are a bit “hot”, but for me – an analogue tape lover – this where you really can get close to the source . This is as close to the “real McCoy” as you are ever going to get unless actually present at the recording. A bit untamed in the mid to highs here and there but not lacking in dynamics, timbre – soul even! No digital trickery smoothing over the cracks here. I hasten to clarify that none of this suggests a deficiency in the production, the players or Kishi himself – instead, it brings an organic, emotive richness to the work that is rare!

The album continues across a further 6 tracks – 5 of Kishi’s own hand – and the audience (captured on the recording) is clearly enjoying it as much as I am! From the sprightly, wistful and intriguing In Fantasia full of its expectant wonder to the clever (and complementary to Byrne I feel) cover of Talking Heads This Must Be The Place, the group take us on a journey across love, passion, anger, loss and more – less a concept album more an expedition to the four corners of music. And one I’m sending happy postcards from! 

Part improvised – track 7 – Atticus In The Desert (first published in 2013 on his 151a release) sees Kishi’s voice once again become the 6th “instrument” for the most part with incredibly deft playing from all. Energy, power, passion, and even loop boxing combine to create a string, beat and percussion track that is off on a voyage of wonder carrying the audience like a magic carpet across the dunes of some magical sandy world – all converging to produce a truly incredible track that I’d love to see performed live! It only lacked whirling dervishes! 

To sum up – this was quite a revelation to listen to – not only as it introduced me to an artist and other players I’d badly overlooked, but it also offered a “realness” of recording and boldness of work that is often left by the wayside in pursuit of sonic audiophile “perfection” in a mastering sense. There is some audible noise floor here and some untamed late reflections, but each one builds up the mental image I have of sitting front row in a large warehouse space (which is what it is) within touching distance of some incredible artists. It’s quite unlike anything else I’ve heard. And I’m richer for it – and feeling quite bamboozled from the experience! It’s also worth noting that this session was charity event set up by Reel to Reel Haven which succeeded in raising substantial funds for cancer charities – chapeau! 

The recording chain is of particular interest to me in that it comprises no digital components at all. In fact, when I spoke to Ryan O’Connor of Reel To Reel Haven he was very clear on this ethos. His stance is that digital has no place in his studio or recordings and instead he adheres to a 100% pure analogue chain. Beyond that, Reel to Reel Haven extends well beyond being “just” a label in the increasingly popular “new” tape market – they are a fully equipped recording studio and artist space, machine repair/restoration and tape transfers house, they create education programs to advance and continue the sound engineer profession, supply tape and spares to open reel users and, something very personal to Ryan due to a previous illness, raise large months of money for cancer charities – I have to tip my hat to them! I also have it on very good authority (Ryan told me) they are working on fabricating new parts for the industry such as a new production of an extinct mini splicing block and a new transport control for the Otari MX5050 B3-2.  Reel to Reel Haven has also been chosen as the US distributor for the new (yes new!) Revox B77 MIII.

For this album, the recording chain is an all analogue mic to 24 channel 2” tape using an Otari MX-80 with an SSL AWS 924 delta desk (think north of £70,000 to you and I) to mix and master (with tube based effects where required) down to ½” 2 track master on an Otari MTR-10 (with brand new heads Ryan tells me)  before making the ¼” duplicates for release via Studer and Otari mastering decks – no Pro Tools here!

Session Live at Studio 47 by Kishi Bashi Quartet is available online from Reel to Reel Haven for £386 plus shipping and import taxes (price correct at time of press).

Alan McIntosh

Associated review equipment – Studer a807 Recorder/Reproducer, Hegel 390 Amplifier, Custom Built EL34 Valve Amplifier, Blumenhofer Tempesta 17 speakers with Chord Epic XLR interconnects and Tellurium Black II speaker cable. Power cabling/block by Titan Audio. Racking by Quadraspire.